RPT-India to abolish controversial airport fee in New Delhi, Mumbai

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Last Updated: Tue, Oct 16, 2012 12:40 hrs

(Repeats for wider distribution)

NEW DELHI, Oct 16 (Reuters) - India will abolish a
controversial airport fee at the New Delhi and Mumbai airports
from January 2013, the government said in a statement on
Tuesday, as the country seeks to bolster air travel amid
complaints of high costs by global airlines.

Civil aviation minister Ajit Singh asked the state-run
Airports Authority of India (AAI) to infuse additional equity at
the two airports where it is an operating partner with private
players GMR Infrastructure Ltd and GVK Power &
Infrastructure Ltd.

Delhi and Mumbai airports had started to levy an airport
development fee as AAI failed to infuse additional equity to
meet development costs at the airports.
(Reporting by Anurag Kotoky; Editing by Anand Basu)